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South Africa To Quit Troubled UN War Crimes Court

South Africa said on Friday it was quitting the International Criminal Court (ICC) because membership conflicted with diplomatic immunity laws, dealing a new blow to … Continue reading South Africa To Quit Troubled UN War Crimes Court


south-africaSouth Africa said on Friday it was quitting the International Criminal Court (ICC) because membership conflicted with diplomatic immunity laws, dealing a new blow to the struggling court and angering the political opposition.

Pretoria last year announced its intention to leave after the ICC criticized it for disregarding an ICC order to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide and war crimes, when he visited South Africa. Bashir has denied the accusations.

The United Nations on Friday confirmed receipt of South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC, which will take effect one year from Oct. 19, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, making it the first country to quit the Rome Statute.

The instrument of withdrawal document, seen by Reuters on Thursday, has been assessed by the United Nations as bona fide and is being processed, Dujarric said.

The announcement puts new pressure on the world’s first permanent war crimes court, which has had to fight off allegations of pursuing a neo-colonial agenda in Africa, where all but one of its 10 investigations have been based.

Burundi’s leader this week signed a decree to leave the ICC, and Kenya’s parliament is considering following suit.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States was “concerned” about the South African decision, but he declined to speculate what Kenya and Burundi would do and said it was too early to speak of a “trend” toward African withdrawal from the court.

Kirby said the United States, while not a member of the court, believed the ICC had made “valuable contributions in the service of accountability …and we hope that other countries would share that assessment.”

Justice Minister Michael Masutha told reporters in Pretoria that the government would draft a bill to repeal its adoption of the ICC’s Rome Statute to preserve its ability to conduct active diplomatic relations, and had given formal notice.

He said the statute conflicted with South Africa’s Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges Act, which was cited in the decision to ignore the court order to detain Bashir, but that the government remained committed to the fight against impunity.

The ICC said it had not formally been notified of South Africa’s intention to leave the Rome Statute.

A document seen by Reuters at the United Nations on Thursday showed the move would take effect one year after notice was formally received by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The document was signed by South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and dated Oct. 19.